Business Statistics in Practice has five attributes that make it an effective learning tool:

• A consistent theme of business improvement through statistical analysis.

• A unique use of “continuing” case studies that integrates different statistical areas.

• A real emphasis on the study of variation that stresses that the analysis of individual population observations is as important as the analysis of population means.

• A flexible topic flow that facilitates different topic choices and encourages different teaching approaches. In particular, since many courses give different emphases to probability, hypothesis testing, regression and statistical modeling, nonparametric statistics, and quality control, this book provides great flexibility with respect to how, when, and whether to cover these topics.

• A modern use of the statistical capabilities of the software packages MINITAB, Excel, and MegaStat® (an Excel add-in package included on the text’s student CD-ROM) that stresses statistical interpretation and that reflects the use of these packages in the real world.